Josh stared at me with a determined eye, "That ain't gonna happen, our heads will stay on our necks, Benita." He thrust his hand out, "Give me the other phone," he said.
He pressed it on and looked intently at the screen, "YES! We have a signal," he said, thumbing it hard.
"Who you phoning?" I asked.
"Clara."
"What can she do? She's just a frightened girl?"
He slammed the phone to his ear, "She can bring me my gun, our sure fire way out of here without involving the law," he said.
A sudden flashing light alerted us and we both spun to look in its direction. The light flashed incessantly from the far corner of the large space. "HELLO, is that you Clara?" Asked Josh, as the light suddenly stopped. Her voice was frightened, weak and whispered, "Yes, it is me."
But her voice didn't come from the phone. No, it came from the room, from the space where the light flashed.
"She's in here, with us," I said. Josh called out, "Clara, where are you?"
"Over here," she said, the fear in her voice was palpable. I draped myself round Josh's shoulder and I hopped with his help, to the space from where her voice came.
In the far corner of the room was a recess, with prison like bars from floor to ceiling. Josh shone his phone in and Clara gazed at us, resignation in her eyes.
Clara sat curled up at the back of the cell like room. She looked just like the first time I saw her, huddled in the dark stairwell of Paddock Field. Back then I'd been with Dylan; the guy whom I thought would save her and I from this, instead he'd drawn us all into it, like a moth to a flame.
A sudden sinister thought hits me and I reacted almost violently by hopping away from Josh and hoisting up a vicious looking skull with sharp horns, "I swear Joshua, if you're in on all this, I'll kill you," I screamed, brandishing the skull threateningly.
He walked slowly toward me, his head bowed, "Look me in the eye, you low life traitor," I said, hoisting the skull, ready to strike him.
He stopped, but continued to look down, like a guilty guy unable to make eye contact.
'Should I strike him?' I asked myself, is this what I must do to save myself? "DON'T DO THAT – PLEASE!" Shouted Clara, who clung to the bars of her cell, desperately clawing for freedom.
My eyes caught hers and she pleaded, "Don't hurt him, he is a very good person, a beautiful human being who we must preserve," she said, softly.
Guilt racked my body and I threw the skull on the concrete floor with force. I watched it shatter and when it settled into broken pieces I heard Josh say, "You doubted me, Benita."
My eyes met his and I said, "I did."
He nodded, "That's understandable. When our trust is betrayed, we doubt everything and everybody."
I felt totally shitty, "I'm so sorry," I said, shamefully.
"No, don't be sorry. I doubted you, truth is I still do have doubts," he said.
I shot back defensively, "What, you doubt me; you think I'm part of all this?"
He shrugged his shoulders, "You could be, how do I know?"
I pointed toward Clara, "What about her, do you doubt her?" I asked.
He answered with confidence, "I trust Clara, I know her story, I've rescued girls like her before. Girls, oppressed and controlled by false demons, smuggled into London to be used and exploited by the worst of humanity. Clara's legit, that much I know."
